The Pittsburgh Steelers have advanced to 7-4 this season after a 16-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12. The offense came to life, gaining 421 yards in the first game after making a change at offensive coordinator.
Former Steelers OL, Willie Colon, appeared on The Carton Show on FOX Sports on Monday to discuss the Steelers following their win.
“It’s called heart,” Colon said when asked how the Steelers keep winning. “And Mike Tomlin finally coming to grips that his offensive coordinator [Matt] Canada wasn’t getting it done.” You gotta credit Mike Sullivan who took over the play calling and did a hell of a job of really preparing these guys to win one game. Because any time you lose your OC, any time you have a struggling quarterback, you gotta have a reaction. That reaction was Kenny Pickett first play Pat Freiermuth down the seam.”
There were a number of factors that combined to produce the Steelers’ best offensive effort of the season. The coordinator change, the running game continuing to succeed, Freiermuth finally being healthy, and, of course, the play of Pickett. The team connected on multiple deep shots down the field, both up the sideline and in between the numbers. It is a small sample size, but definitely a step in the right direction.
“I mean he was money,” Colon said of Pickett. “He has a security blanket, and the run game came to life. What else do you want from this team? They’re coming and everybody should be scared.”
The wording is a little strong, but the Steelers are starting to take on a viable identity that can work over the final month-and-a-half of the season. The AFC playoff field is looking pretty strong, but the brand of football the Steelers are playing, if sustained, can make some noise in the playoffs as well.
Colon received some pushback from the show’s host, Craig Carton.
“They’re not (scared),” said Carton. “It’s a bad football team. The Cincinnati Bengals don’t have a quarterback, and you damn near lost that game yesterday. The only thing going for Pittsburgh is that the Browns are worse and they’re in the playoffs also. They’re the benefactors of playing against other bad teams. You put Pittsburgh up against a good team, they get waxed by 20.”
Those points are fair, the Steelers are just one game removed from a brutal loss to the Cleveland Browns without their $100 million quarterback. The rest of the schedule isn’t exactly murderers’ row, either. Up next, they host the Arizona Cardinals and then the New England Patriots before going on the road to play the Indianapolis Colts. Those next three games are all very winnable and won’t help to disprove Carton’s critique.
From there, they have the Bengals again and then the Seattle Seahawks and the Baltimore Ravens to round out the season. The Steelers could already have a playoff spot secured by then, but those last two games will be a great litmus test as to what kind of playoff success this team can or cannot achieve.
